Kathmandu hospitals could collapse in an earthquake

KATHMANDU, fifteen December 2008  - Most of Kathmandu’s fifty hospitals ar poorly engineered and would collapse if there have been a serious earthquake, experts warn. They also note that health institutions lack emergency response plans and are generally ill-prepared.

Kathmandu valley lies in a high risk earthquake zone; poorly constructed buildings and lack of preparedness could significantly increase the casualty rate if there were another big earthquake.

The Nepal-Bihar Earthquake of 1934, measuring 8.4 on the Richter scale, left thousands dead and over 200,000 buildings severely damaged or destroyed.

According to the Nepal Red Cross Society’s Earthquake Contingency Plan 2008, an earthquake measuring 7-8 on the Richter scale could kill up to 50,000 people in the city, injure 100,000 and destroy 60 percent of buildings, leaving 900,000 homeless.

Most of the hospitals in Kathmandu would be so badly damaged that medical services would be virtually impossible for months, local NGO National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET), told IRIN.

“Our health capacities are so weak. We still don’t have emergency medical response mechanisms in place yet,” said disaster expert Amod Dixit, NSET executive director.